Star's Scream
by Fallen-Gabriel
Summary: Starscream is dead. Soundwave is under oath. And Megatron has awakened.


Haters gunna hate the feels in this...

S-m-m-S

Starscream coughed up energon rapidly, forcing his intakes to work as he rasped, and stared at the green around him. As much as he hated organic life, the pine needles that got stuck in his joints, the twigs that somehow found ways into his wing components, or the pebbles that got stuck in his thrusters...This seemed like a peaceful place. The sun was setting and he would have had a giggle at such a time to die as this, it almost seemed...**too** perfect.

He took another pained intake, gritting his denta, and exhaled it with another painful, hacking cough that rocked his chassis. The seeker had no idea why he was prolonging his own demise, perhaps it was the fact that this damned dark crystal in his chest was trying to regenerate him as fast as it was deteriorating his spark...He sneered at its futile efforts to preserve itself.

Starscream cycled off his optics, enjoying a slight breeze that dashed over the tree tops, and had no intention of re-opening them. That was, till he heard the unmistakable sound of thrusters, and the landing of a jet. His dimming optics settled on none other than Soundwave, the telepath's face mask catching the last stripes of the colors that made up the setting sun.

"Ah...I wondered when you would find me." He smirked, knowing that if anyone were to find him that it would be the TIC. "Although I half hoped you would be too late, so that I wouldn't have to admit anything to that mask you wear so well." His smirk turned from a frown to end in a sneer as he spoke to the other. Soundwave knelt by him, lifting his mid-section, but he pushed the other away with a force his old body would never have been half able to generate, and one that left this form shuddering in anguish.

"Leave me you fool!" He managed to snap, regretting it as his voice fizzled at the last moment, and his body gave another painful shudder as his sound box almost gave out. "I..." He took a deep intake, trying to still the pained tremors. "You know this is the end for me...Don't you?" He smirked at the other's cool posture, but there was an undeniable twitch there. "Oh, don't tell me you've grown attached to me, Soundwave!" He gave a weak laugh, one that hurt his chassis, but smirked despite it.

"We knew this was coming the moment this dark **thing** took place inside of me. There was no stopping it...There is no stopping this." He rasped, his face plates falling expressionless as intakes were becoming more difficult, lower priority maintenance programs shutting off in his processor. Red warnings flashed before him but he turned them all off to view the other, not that there was much to see besides a blank, black mask.

"I never thought it would be you...watching me die. I always thought...I would die looking into Megatron's optics over a failure that was not...my fault. Or I would die with an Autobot blaster in my face...So many ways besides this one." The corner of his lip components actually tugged up gently. "This way is...peaceful...something I don't think I deserve now." Starscream couldn't feel the pain his tremors or shudders brought anymore, his body shutting off to everything.

"I...I have a new order." He whispered harshly to that face, the one he had always known the other for. "I wish to override the original order I gave you..."

A recording played here, and his voice came through, stronger and prouder than he was now: _"Soundwave, I order you now, as my only true command to you as Lord of the Decepticons...Don't you ever tell Megatron what I feel for him. _**_Ever_**_."_

Starscream nodded weakly, and somewhere, subconsciously, he knew the telepath was trying to stall him from making the final order that he knew was coming. If he could just keep Starscream from overriding that command...

"I, Starscream, Lord of the Decepticons..." His voice dropped octaves, and he rasped as energon ran from between his lip components like a river. "Override my final command...With...This one..." He cycled off his optics, the full body shudder that came actually reaching his mind this time, covering him in a thick world of pain. He managed to online his optics long enough to stare at the other once more. "You will not tell Megatron of my final resting place. When you leave this grove, you will never speak of where it is...Of where I am."

Soundwave remained silent, cycling his order it seemed, and withdrew. He stood, staring down at the broken seeker resting against the boulder, as the moon and stars blinked into life as Starscream slowly slipped away. He watched the light behind his optics dim, the small genuine smile curve his lip components as his form shifted, profoundly relaxed against the rock face.

The telepath scanned him, finding no spark pulse or intakes he simply stared at the seeker. Now, he was free from his oath, he could tell Megatron the truth of Starscream. But to what avail? With the seeker gone there seemed little point in telling his master. He would, of course, inform him if he chose to question why Starscream did what he did. And he knew he would.

And that was the worst. Part of him hated the seeker more than it ever had for the inevitable doom that would befall the army for his selfish act, and the other part of him pitied the seeker. He knew the final minutes of his life, and he almost wished that he had not overridden his final command...In fact, he wished that he'd made neither command of the telepath.

Because now, unable to tell his Lord the final resting place of the seeker would only make the downward spiral worse, it would only doom Megatron further to know that he would simply have to scour the world over looking for Starscream. It would waste time, energon, and it would make other's lose faith in him. And when his exploit was pointless, when he failed to locate his wayward deactivated Second...What then?

Soundwave looked to the sky, the silver lights that sprinkled the midnight blue and the brilliant white moon reflected his mask. The part of him that had hated the seeker was dwindling away, and he realized that he was being foolish. Having that emotion, that sort of feeling for anyone was not a selfish act as the many that the seeker had preformed. It was one of the few that the seeker could not be blamed for.

The telepath knelt by him once more, staring at his smiling face. He reached out softly, stroking the silver-turned-black face...Soundwave took in the sight of the seeker. At one time he had been mostly silver, with black, yellow, and green. Now, he was shaded in black, white, and grey...Befitting the death that he knew had been long coming ever since the dark crystal had found refuge in his spark.

Although it had made him powerful, given him regeneration properties, and even allowed him to save Lord Megatron in his most dire moment and survive...It had robbed him of his own life force slowly. Every week he had grown sicker, coughing up energon, and having sharp pains all though out his body. Every day was a pain the last week, and he had to have someone under his arm help him around.

Soundwave wondered - briefly - if there really had been no way to sever the crystal's force from his spark, and he knew it was not his place to question. He did not know excessive information on the science that had bound the mysterious entity to the seeker, and he actually knew very little of medical standings on the subject. So how was he to know?

But something nagged at the back of his processor that he made sure to look into later, as he ran over moments of footage from watching the seeker slowly deteriorate. He wondered if they could have stalled Starscream's death by keeping him from the battlefield, by having him stay back every time something had appeared...If Soundwave had kept him from entering the battle today that had ended his life.

But he knew better than to dwell on the 'what ifs' and 'what could have been'. So, he stood, giving the seeker one last long stare, before transforming and making his way back to the Nemesis. As he was only an hour away, he received a comm from Knockout.

"Oh, uh, Soundwave!" His voice sounded worried, somewhat panicked, and uneasy. "I...I have something to tell you."

He waited.

"Lord Megatron has awakened."

s-M-M-s

More to follow! Usually I write chapters to be rather long: 4 thousand to 5 thousand words. But, I couldn't stretch the first chapter that far, so I went as far as I could with it and then wanted to see the reaction. I need at least five reviews before I do anything with it! .


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